


Complacency of the Learned

by Shuttering_Flutterflies



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Gay Robots, Grimdark (Homestuck), Homestuck 2: Beyond Canon, Meta, Sadstuck, Ultimate Rose Lalonde
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24507589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shuttering_Flutterflies/pseuds/Shuttering_Flutterflies
Summary: Mechanical desires have unravelled all my wires.
Relationships: Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam
Kudos: 4





	Complacency of the Learned

**Author's Note:**

> My twitter: https://twitter.com/x_clownenergy_x
> 
> My tumblr: https://clown-energy.tumblr.com/

The scene on Deltritus is an unusual one, one the planet would have never seen before. Terezi, genuinely smiling for the first time in what feels like decades as she speaks with Jade, two two huddled so close they are almost touching. Dave and Karkat, arguing with a heavily wounded Dirk as Dirk attempts to goad Dave into killing him. Roxy and Kanaya stand together, Roxy flashing worried glances over to the rest of his family, Kanaya completely focused on scanning the horizon, her body tight with tension.

They are looking for Rose.

Throughout the final confrontation, if it could even be called that, Rose had been conspicuously absent, something Dirk himself had pointed out and seemed slightly concerned by. At his side, Terezi's brow furrowed in worry, something Kanaya had definitely seen, and been alarmed by.

KANAYA: She Isn't Here  


ROXY: kan, calm down! just coz we havnt seen her yet doesnt mean shes ran off lol  


ROXY: shes prolly just waiting till everyone calms down

Roxy takes a second to look at his friends. They're still being loud, Terezi and Jade now cackling with huge grins, Dirk and Dave now yelling in each others faces so loud even Karkat looks alarmed. He grimaces.

ROXY: i mean can u blame her?

ROXY: look at us were fuckin disasters

ROXY: lmao

Kanaya takes a deep shuddering breath and finally tears her gaze away from the planet. In the distance, a herd of horses with Bill Cosby's face runs across a plain and Roxy shudders. God, he can't wait until Rose comes. Not just because he's worried himself and misses her terribly, but because of the... unique fauna living on the planet.

KANAYA: What If She Doesn't

KANAYA: What If She Has Been Injured

KANAYA: What If She Has Been

KANAYA: Been

Roxy's eyes widen as a green tear slides its way down Kanaya's face, moving quickly as he puts an arm around her, pulling her into a hug. Kanaya doesn't fight it, letting out a shaky breath as she burrows her head into Roxy's shoulder.

ROXY: dont say that!

ROXY: she isnt hurt or dead she cant be!

ROXY: shes a god tier shed have to have done smthn evil or heroic to die and there isnt anything here to do

ROXY: im p sure getting killed by these freaky guys or falling off a cliff isnt a heroic slash just death

ROXY:  


ROXY: lol

Painfully aware this is the third time Roxy has lolled in the last five minutes and hoping no one heard his conversational faux-pas, Roxy instead pats Kanaya's back as she continues crying quietly. Truth be told, Roxy had been afraid of the same thing, but he was desperately trying to stay positive. For Kanaya and himself.

KANAYA: She Isn't Just God Tier

KANAYA: She Is Also A Robot

KANAYA: Its Not Like We Are Unfamiliar With The Concept Of Robots Exploding

KANAYA: And I Don't Know If The Normal Rules Apply When It Comes To That

Her sobs have stopped. Kanaya gently pushes Roxy away, swiping a hand at her eyes. She stands up straighter and resumes searching for her lost wife, still trembling with worry.

ROXY: i mean

ROXY: even if she doesnt explode its not like the robot is her body

ROXY: we can always put her soul back in her regular body!

ROXY: im sure dirky will do it if we ask

Roxy sneaks a quick glance at the two Striders who now appear to be talking to each other quietly. Kanaya's hand twitches towards her chainsaw at the mention of Dirk. Terezi and Jade start laughing even louder. Roxy hunches his shoulders and looks away, desperately wishing they could leave.

…

There's a figure off in the distance, slowly walking towards them. His pink eyes widened behind his glasses as he turned to look at the figure. While at first Roxy had thought it could be another one of Rose and Dirks weird alien babies, as it grew nearer, the orange dress, grey skin and glowing red eyes gave it away.

He grabs Kanaya's arm, dragging her around to face the figure. Kanaya protests in alarm, but quickly fall silent when she sees the figure.

KANAYA: Rose

Everyone falls silent as Kanaya breaths her wives name, tears welling in her eyes. The figure, Rose, continues walking slowly and Kanaya laughs tearfully, wrenching her arm from Roxy's grip as she begins to run towards her wife.

KANAYA: Rose!

Dust kicks up from Kanaya's feet as she runs, paying it no mind. She is deaf, blind, mute, unaware of anything that wasn't Rose, still walking towards her. As she grew closer, she slows, suddenly conscious of the fact that Rose didn't seem to share her joy, eventually coming to a halt just before Rose.

The two women look at each other in silence for a moment, Kanaya openly weeping and Rose still, her red mechanical eyes locked on Kanaya's.

ROSE: Hello, Kanaya.

ROSE: It's... good to see you.

KANAYA: Rose

KANAYA: Are You

KANAYA: Are You Okay

Rose's lips curve in a tiny smile and Kanaya relaxes slightly. The smile was odd, out of place on the robotic face and stretched slightly wrong. But Kanaya still knew that smile, treasured it above all else.

KANAYA: Ive Missed You

KANAYA: So Much

KANAYA: I Love You Rose

ROSE: I know, Kan. I love you too.

Slowly, Rose takes Kanaya's hand and examines it for a moment. Kanaya almost sobs at the feeling of her wife's hand in hers. Rose's hand is metallic, cold to the touch and hard, but this was something she know too. It's still Rose.

ROSE: I'm sorry that I left. I had to...

ROSE: I was doing what I thought was the right thing.

KANAYA: Was It The Right Thing

It comes off colder than she meant it too, and Rose's eyes snap back up to hers. The tiny feeling in the back of Kanaya's brain saying something isn't quite right gets stronger.

ROSE: I don't know.

ROSE: It didn't make me happy.

KANAYA:

ROSE: I missed you so much.

The two stand for a moment, Rose still holding Kanaya's hand. Kanaya doesn't know what she's feeling. She'd pictured this as a happy moment, holding Rose in her arms, kissing her, telling her how much she loved her. She didn't picture holding her wife's hand, the two of them awkwardly repeating platitudes at each other with no idea of what they wanted to say.

KANAYA: Did You Think It Would Make You Happy

ROSE: No.

ROSE: I guess not.

ROSE: Maybe I was afraid of being happy.

ROSE: Being with you made me happy and I left because that scared me. Or maybe because I didn't deserve to be happy.

Kanaya briefly thinks of Dirk, telling Dave to kill him. She thinks of Roxy, the other Roxy, drinking herself to death. She thinks of Rose, tiny and afraid, standing above a waterfall, too young and not afraid to die.

KANAYA: What About Now

KANAYA: Are You Happy Now

Rose doesn't answer.

ROSE: I love you.

KANAYA: I Love You Too

ROSE: So much. Christ, Kan, I love you so much.

Rose hesitates, gently letting Kanaya's hand go. Her voice shakes. Kanaya has a very bad feeling about this. She thinks of Rose on LOHAC, looking at her mothers corpse through the Cueball.

KANAYA: Rose

ROSE: I'm so glad I got to see you.

Her eyes widen. Rose smiles gently at her, and begins twitching violently, her eyes randomly flashing different colours. Dimly, she hears voices from behind her, but she pays them no mind, focusing on her wife as the twitching gets worse.

Kanaya knows exactly what's happening here, from the last time it happened.

You don't forget the sight of your friend exploding before your eyes.

Logically, Kanaya knew she should be moving away. She knows that if she stays where she is, the explosion will hurt her, maybe even kill her. She doesn't care. She's already lost Rose once. She had her for five seconds and now she's loosing her forever. Tears are rolling down her cheeks as she makes eye contact with Rose, trying to communicate what she couldn't say. _I love you. I'm sorry. I wish I had been enough._

Rose moves, her arms coming up to push Kanaya away, still jerking wildly. Kanaya goes to say something, to tell Rose to stop, but the shove is hard, so hard Kanaya lands flat on her back several feet away.

She doesn't see the explosion.

Screams rang in the distance, both horrified and saddened. Kanaya didn't hear them as she lay on her back, rendered momentarily deaf from the explosion. Unable to comprehend what had just happened, she stared at the purple sky, the distant sun twinkling. For Kanaya, there was a long moment of silence in which nothing happened. A light breeze whispered against her skin, spinning the clouds above into a wistful dance, everything was still and peaceful. However, sound slowly began to return to her, forcing her to realise the situation. She could hear heart-wrenching sobs, someone yelling a desperate plea, an admission of guilt, a declaration of innocence.

She got to her feet slowly, looking at the ground as if she were a child afraid of an imagined monster in the dark. She couldn't look and see, despite the fact that she already knew what she would find. For at least a moment, she would hold onto her denial, a brief chance to stay sane and rational before she would break completely.

Kanaya pursed her lips, squeezing her eyes tightly closed. She lifted her head, fists clenched so tight her nails tore into her hands, and opened her jade eyes slowly.

It was worse than she could have imagined, the sight tearing her heart into pieces. The ground was scorched with ash and coated in a fine layer of burnt metal, mangled into strips and chips. A few burnt fragments of Rose's dress littered the ground, scattered among the surviving parts of her robotic body – an arm, her hip, her head.

Sobbing, Kanaya moved slowly towards the remains, feeling as though she were wading through molasses. She picked the head up, her chest squeezing as if it were about to explode, looking into her wife's eyes for what would be the final time. They were dim and lifeless and Kanaya cradled it to her chest, her grief so much it felt like she would choke.

She opened her mouth – why she didn't know. Whether it was to speak or cry, she ended up screaming in anguish instead. It was loud, almost enough to rival the earlier explosion, and went on until she ran out of air. It was a statement of agony, enough to bring tears to the eyes of her companions who weren't already crying, something so personal and emotional they felt guilt for having heard it.

It carried on the breeze which carried it further along the field, passing the many frightful creatures living on Deltritus, to the cave housing what was left of Rose Lalonde. Her body was still, floating lightly in a tank, slack like a puppet being hung from its neck.

Her face was still, impassioned, the veins on her neck and wrists, once blue, slowly began to turn black. When they had finished their transformation, the body now rendered strange and dissimilar, there was another brief silence, before her hand came up and smashed against the glass.

It moved unnaturally, as though it was being manipulated by a distant horror terror, but the cracks that formed in its wake spoke to the strength behind it. The hand slipped back into its original position, just as her other hand did the same thing, cracking the container even more. This happened two more times, each assault deafening, leaving massive cracks on the glass that grew larger with each blow until with one final noise, the loudest of them all, the container smashed.

The body, still eerily still despite the earlier movement, fell to the floor hard, landing on its side. There was a sickening crack as its head hit the ground, but despite the violence it didn't move. All signs that there were any sort of life had disappeared, the body now returned to its earlier state of corpse-like stillness and calm.

There was a pregnant pause as the body lay on the ground, in which the whole world fell silent. Kanaya's distant screams were too far away to hear, the wind had fallen into silence, and the inhabitants of this planet, spawn of two mad gods, seemed to have went still. It was as if some higher force was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen, although it would be unclear what exactly was supposed to happen. The silence continued on for a few more minutes, some unseen tension appearing to ramp up the longer it went on. Just as though it felt like it would reach a breaking point, it suddenly stopped. Something outside whinnied, followed by the distant slap of tentacles on stone. Far away from the cave, Kanaya's wails were cut off by the roar of a chainsaw. The wind rustled through the cave, gently brushing against Rose's hair.

And then I opened my eyes. 


End file.
